


Homesick

by LadyCressa



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: 7 year time skip, Family, Gen, Goku's POV, Hurt/Comfort, a touch of angst, mentions of GoChi, other world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26407174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyCressa/pseuds/LadyCressa
Summary: Set in the 7 year time skip. In Other World, Goku meets someone surprising. Meeting her both helps and hurts.
Relationships: Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 21





	Homesick

Training for the rest of eternity on Grand Kai's planet was fun but taking a break sometimes was nice, too—even if my body didn't exactly need rest like I did when I was alive on Earth. My favorite place to explore was the planet the good people went to when they died. When I first visited the planet, someone told me that the place had something for everyone.

I flew over lush tropical jungles, arid deserts, around snowy mountain peaks, and over valleys that were forever locked in the perfect spring day. Fields of wildflowers blanketed the valley floors. King Kai told me people seek out the landscapes most familiar to them when they first arrived. It reminded them of home. King Kai said I might even find a spot that reminded me of home. I found my favorite spot not long after I died and visited often. It reminded me of home.

Tall, pillar-like mountains appeared in the distance. I kicked in a burst of speed, swooping low over a river toward the familiar landscape. I landed on the top of one of the mountain's grassy peaks and let my legs dangle over the edge.

I could just picture my house on the land below and imagine the mouth-watering smells of Chichi's home cooking drifting through the open windows. I smiled. I pictured Chichi as she stepped outside and called me in for dinner, a smile on her pretty face, and her hair let down from her usual bun.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes.

I definitely didn't imagine the woman standing with her back to me at the river's edge—a woman wearing a very familiar style of traditional dress with a long sleeved undershirt. I was sure she would have been wearing the same sort of loose-fitting pants and house shoes, too—if it weren't for the unsettling ghostly tail floating a few inches above the ground where legs should have been. A golden halo hovered over her head. Her long, dark hair reflected the halo's faint warm glow.

"No way." I slid off the edge of the rocky, grass-topped column and let myself free fall through the air. I slowed myself with a flare of energy only a couple of feet above ground and ran to her, my heart racing. I grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. "Chichi!? How—"

She yelped and stared up at me with wide eyes—a lighter brown than I expected. For that matter, the woman's hair wasn't the same shade as Chichi's hair was either. I let my hands fall away from the woman's shoulders. If there was anything Chichi drilled into me, it was manners so I decided to offer this strange woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to my wife an apology.

"Heh… sorry I scared you. You look just like my… ah…" I dropped my gaze to the river behind her and the silvery fish glinting in the sunlight as they darted around just below the surface. I rubbed at my chest.

"How do you know that name?" she asked, her head slightly tilted.

The woman's voice even sounded like Chichi's.

"Well. Ya see. Chichi's my wife," I said. "Heh… Or at least she was when I was alive."

The woman's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. "You're Chichi's husband!?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But—"

"I'm Chichi's mother, Lait!" she said, her expression brightening into an excited smile.

I stared at her. "Her mother…?" I mouthed. It felt like my brain froze—all thought grinding to a stop.

My attention snapped to a hand waving in front of my face. "I asked you what your name is," she said.

"Oh. Uh. I'm Goku. Son Goku," I said.

Lait clapped her hands in front of her chest in the same way Chichi did when she was excited about something. "Chichi got married! Oh, I hoped she'd find love!" Lait grabbed my hand. "Let's go for a walk."

Lait pulled me along a pathway following the river that wove between the column-shaped mountains. A forest of giant trees just like my mountain on earth lay ahead.

"An entire lifetime? Already?" murmured Lait. She glanced up at me and giggled as she scratched her cheek—a habit Chichi had when she was embarrassed about something. "Ah. Sorry. I lose track of time up here."

"Heh, yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Gravel crunched under my boots as we entered the forest, the path still following the river. Lait floated along next to me.

"So, how is Ox after all this time?" asked Lait. "He was softening up into a real sweetheart when Chichi came along."

I stepped over a narrow stream that cut across our path and held my hand out for Lait—though I realized she probably didn't have to worry about losing her balance. "Yeah! He's a pretty cool guy! And an awesome grandpa, too!"

Lait halted just before the water, hovering inches above the stream's rocky bank. "Grandpa!?" She stared at me with her hand over her mouth but the shine in her eyes betrayed a smile.

I grinned. "Chichi and I have an amazing son named Gohan."

Lait's eyes filled with tears. "I'm a grandmother?" she murmured through her hand.

"Yeah!" I said with a nod. "Gohan is ten years old, super smart and incredibly strong. Heh. At least he was ten years old the last time I saw him. He's probably grown some by now."

I couldn't help but picture an older Gohan, nearing my height if not taller than me—though I didn't know exactly how much older

"Oh, I bet Ox spoils the daylights out of him," said Lait through a watery laugh.

I laughed, too. "Chichi got after Ox sometimes for giving Gohan too many presents every time he visited."

Lait accepted my hand and floated over the stream. She sighed wistfully. "That sounds like my husband."

We lapsed into comfortable silence. A small flock of chirping sparrows flitted by weaving through the trees. Lait looked at me, her mouth slightly open like she was about to say something. Instead, Lait bit her lip and looked toward the path in front of us. We followed the winding path deeper into the peaceful forest. The trail had left the river behind a ways back, though I could still hear the steady rush of water.

"Do you… Do you know if Ox ever found love again?" she finally asked, her voice quiet.

I looked at her and shook my head. "Don't think so." I thought back to the few times I heard Ox speak of his wife over the years I knew him—thought back to the way he spoke of her and the soft smile on his face. "Ya know, I think he misses you too much," I said.

With tears in her eyes, Lait fell silent again after that—aside from the occasional sniffle—leaving my mind free to wander. I frowned as we followed the path deeper into the forest, unable to shake the newly formed troubling question that pushed to the forefront of my mind: Would Chichi find love?

"Tell me how you and Chichi met," said Lait.

I glanced at her. "Oh. Uh. Well, we were just kids—twelve or thirteen maybe? When I first saw her, this huge dinosaur was chasing her and she cut its head clean off," I said through a chuckle. "Chichi was really strong."

Lait giggled, too. "Considering what her father was capable of, that doesn't surprise me." Lait and I crossed over a small wooden bridge built over a stream with crystal clear water. "How in the world did you manage to find Ox's kingdom, anyway? We were so far off the beaten path."

"My friends and I were searching for these things called Dragon Balls and tracked one to Ox's castle."

"The Dragon Balls, eh?" said Lait as she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "I heard if you gather… seven, was it?" I nodded. "You can summon a mighty dragon that will grant you any wish. Ox and I never saw it ourselves but we believed the legend."

"The legend is true," I said. "I've seen the Eternal Dragon. Shenron is huge and powerful. If he's summoned in the daytime, the sky goes dark like it's night."

"That must have been incredible to see," said Lait with an awed smile.

"Sure was!"

"So… it was in this search for the Dragon Balls that you first met Ox and Chichi?" said Lait, her tone lifting at the end.

"Yeah! Ox overheard my friends and me talking about how to take the Dragon Ball from his castle. He didn't like that very much," I said.

A knowing smile twinkled in Lait's eyes. "He never did take kindly to anyone showing up to take his precious treasure."

I chuckled at the memory. "Yeah, he did attack my friends and me for that."

"Sounds like Ox," said Lait with a shake of her head. "Seeing that must have upset Chichi. Her dad scared her when he got like that when she was really little."

"Well, Chichi wasn't there right then," I said. "Ox sent Chichi on a mission far away from the kingdom."

Lait glanced at me, throwing me a look with an eyebrow raised and her upper lip just slightly curled. I knew that expression and I didn't miss the warning in it. "Away from the kingdom?" she said, her tone icy.

"Uh." I swallowed. "Y-ya see, a magical fire no one could put out endangered Ox's castle. He sent Chichi out to find the turtle hermit, Master Roshi to help."

"Master Roshi, huh?" Lait's expression of warning shifted into a surprised smile. "That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Master Roshi was Ox's childhood martial arts master."

I grinned. "Master Roshi was my grandpa's master! And then I trained under Master Roshi as a kid, too!"

Lait glanced up at me. "No kidding? Ox had expressed interest in training Chichi in the style of the Turtle Hermit school." Lait smiled ruefully. "I didn't live long enough to see that happen."

I touched Lait's shoulder as we walked. She reached up and patted my hand.

"Ox did train Chichi. She is one of the strongest women I know," I said.

Lait's smile grew genuine.

I spent the next few minutes telling Lait all about how I took Chichi to Master Roshi's house and back to her kingdom.

"Ox gave me the Dragon Ball for my help and even promised Chichi's hand in marriage to me for helping him and Chichi," I said. "I agreed because I thought marriage was a type of food when I was a kid. Boy was I wrong."

Lait threw her head back and laughed. "Did ya live under a rock?"

I scratched the back of my head and laughed, too. "Pretty much."

"What happened next?" asked Lait.

"Well, my friends' hunt for the Dragon Balls took me away from Ox and Chichi. I saw Chichi again a few months later and then didn't see her for a few years after that."

Lait stared at me. "A few years?"

"I was busy training for the twenty-third World Martial Arts Tournament," I said. "Didn't see my other friends for a while, either. Not until we met again at the Tournament."

"Did you return to her after the Tournament?" asked Lait.

I shook my head. "Didn't have to. Chichi found me to remind me of the promise I made to her."

Lait frowned sadly. "You forgot about Chichi?"

"Not exactly. When I first saw her at the Tournament, I didn't recognize her at first." I chuckled at the memory. "Chichi was so angry with me, she screamed in my face."

"Oh, dear. Sounds like she inherited her father's temper," said Lait through a giggle.

I nodded. "Yeah. But I really like that about her. I love her fiery spirit."

Lait sighed wistfully and said, "Chichi always was a stubborn child."

I laughed. "I can believe it."

"So, Chichi found you at the Tournament. Did she approach you after your matches?" asked Lait.

I shook my head. "No. She fought me."

Lait's eyebrows shot up. "Fought you? You mean she registered?"

I nodded. "Yeah! She was really good, too! She made it all the way to the semi-finals!"

Lait's face lit up with an awed smile that quickly turned into one of pride.

"I still didn't know who she was and she registered under anonymous," I said. "She said she'd tell me her name if I won our match so that's what I did."

"You won and she told you her name, I take it. And then?"

"Chichi helped me remember the promise I made to her but I still didn't know exactly what I promised," I said with a twitch of my shoulders. "I had to ask my friends what marriage was. They said I was supposed to live together with her for the rest of my life. I couldn't explain why, but the thought of that just felt right."

Lait sighed as we wandered down the forest path, a dreamy smile on her face. My thoughts drifted back to simple times, back to when my days consisted of training to keep Chichi and Gohan safe and coming home every night to Chichi's warm smile and amazing cooking.

"Goku?"

Snapped from my memories, I hummed a response. Lait's dreamy smile had turned into a troubled, sad frown.

"It couldn't possibly have been a whole lifetime for Chichi or for you. There's no way. How did you… ah…" Lait scratched at her cheek.

"Huh?" I put it together. "Oh. How did I die?"

Lait's eyes flashed wide a moment and then her cheeks went a little pink. Lait waved her hand through the air. "I… heh… Goodness. That's too personal. I'm sorry I asked."

I waved off her apology and offered a smile. "No, it's okay! I died fighting this really strong, evil guy named Cell. He was about to blow up the planet and, well, I couldn't let that happen."

Lait stared at me. "The… whole planet?" She shook her head. "Ox told me stories about some of Master Roshi's ability with ki but I didn't know anyone that strong existed."

"It's real," I said. "Cell was ridiculously powerful. Stronger than me, even."

"How did you beat him?"

I smiled toward the path ahead. "I didn't. Gohan did." I felt Lait staring at me. "My son and I trained long and hard to face Cell."

When I looked at Lait, I was surprised at first to see the pure rage burning in her eyes and directed at me. Chichi's temper didn't just come from her dad. It was almost comforting in a way. I did my best not to smile—I knew from experience smiling only made Chichi's temper worse.

Lait shoved her rigid pointer finger into my chest. "You made your ten-year-old boy fight against someone tough enough to destroy an entire planet?" Her voice rose with every word.

I nodded. "We didn't have a choice. We needed him against Cell just like we needed him against all the other strong bad guys before. My Gohan was stronger than me. And he won."

Lait huffed as she dropped her finger from my chest. Her lips remained pursed and her eyes narrowed.

"You know, you look just like Chichi when you do that," I said, unable to fight my smile any longer.

Lait's rage evaporated as her eyes lit up. She laughed.

Lait and I resumed our walk, following the path up a hill. The trees thinned.

"How about you? How did you end up here?" I asked. "Chichi and Ox said you got very sick but didn't tell me anything else."

Lait nodded and frowned down at the ground at her feet. "Yes, that's right. It was cancer. It spread too far, too fast for any doctors to do anything about it. Ox went so far as to hire shamans to try to heal me." Lait pointed a slender finger at her halo. "Chichi watched all of it." Lait hung her head as her hands balled into fists at her side. Her voice cracked as she said, "No little girl should have to watch her mother die."

"I'm sorry," I said as I touched her back.

Ox and Chichi rarely talked about Lait. Even then, I knew even then talking about her was too painful for them.

Lait blew out a breath. "I got to say my goodbyes when I realized I wasn't going to survive and not everybody gets to. It wasn't a disease or virus they could catch. I found comfort in that, too."

I didn't really say goodbye to Chichi before I left to fight Cell. I hadn't really said goodbye to her all those other times I left, either. I never was fond of goodbyes.

"What does Chichi look like now?" asked Lait.

"A lot like you," I said. "But darker hair and darker eyes than yours."

"And Gohan?"

"Well, Gohan looks a bit like me but he has his mother's eyes and different hair than mine," I said.

The path ended at the top of what turned out to be a cliff, a waterfall spilling over the wall of rock not too far from where we stood.

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, frowning despite the breathtaking view.

"You miss Chichi and Gohan a whole lot. I can see it in your eyes," said Lait.

I gazed out over the mountains and forest that looked like home but weren't and sighed. "Yeah."

Lait rested her hand on my arm.

"I was gone a lot before this. I know I hurt Chichi when I had to leave but she always forgave me for bein' gone." I smiled sadly. "I just hope she'll forgive me for this one."

"I know she will," said Lait, maintaining the comforting contact.

Goku, said a familiar voice directly into my mind.

I twitched as Lait gasped. I looked up toward the unnaturally gold and pink sky of Other World. "King Kai? What's up?"

There's something King Yemma and I need to talk to you about. You'll want to hear this. Trust me, said King Kai.

"Uh. Okay," I said with a shrug. "I'll be right there."

Good.

"Who was that?" Lait asked, eyes wide.

"You heard him, eh? Well, he's a friend. He's telepathic."

Lait nodded, but it was the slow sort of nod people did when they didn't quite believe what they heard. "I… see."

I chuckled.

Lait adjusted the shawl around her shoulders. Her skeptical expression shifted into a sad smile. "I guess this means you have to leave then?"

"Yeah."

"Don't be a stranger. Okay?" said Lait, tears gathering in her eyes.

I smiled as I tapped two fingers to my forehead. "I wont! I know this trick that lets me teleport to anyone no matter how far away. It's called Instant Transmission."

I concentrated a moment to get a good read on her ki, filing away her exact signature.

"Now I can find you whenever I want!" I said.

Lait closed the small distance between us and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Promise?"

Lait really did remind me a lot of Chichi.

I nodded and returned the hug. "Promise."

Lait stepped back and I got ready for Instant Transmission. I spared her an extra glance as Lait and the familiar landscape melted away.

I was surprised to find King Kai hanging out in Earth's check-in station with King Yemma. Last I saw King Kai, he was on the Grand Kai's planet supervising my spar with Pikkon. Whatever it was King Kai needed to see me for, it was big. Even more confusing, both King Kai and King Yemma had a smile on their faces, which they both directed at me. Fortuneteller Baba floated over the edge of King Yemma's huge desk, sitting cross-legged on her shiny crystal ball and smiling down at me, too.

I stared back and forth between the three of them. Whatever they were about to tell me was definitely going to be big.

**Author's Note:**

> King Kai, King Yemma, and Fortuneteller Baba had something important they needed to tell Goku. What do you suppose that is? ;)


End file.
